When the Dutch went down to Brazil in the first half, the streams of communication once again started to talk about the the Oranje of the past.

It was typical Dutch. They would get popped in the mouth and fold. They were done, but somehow Maarten Stekelenburg kept the Oranje in the game. His saves were fundamental in keeping the match 1-0 in the first 45 minutes.

The second half was a role-reversal. "The team lost their concentration and relaxed in the second half," said Dunga.  Brazil seemed relaxed as they saw that their first-half supremacy would extend into the second 45 minutes of the match.  That was not the case as Arjen Robben started to hold the ball more and cut into the middle of the pitch.

The Dutch were able to take advantage of the opportunities that were given to them by the Brazilians.   Just start with the Felipe Melo own goal.   This was the beginning of the unraveling for the Canarinha.  The Melo own goal rattled the usual Brazilian mettle.   The Dutch winning was not the biggest of the day. The biggest shock was seeing Brazil unravel while the Oranje began to show an uncharacteristic moxie that was not seen before.

Bert Van Marwijk's side was a reflection of their coach.  They were low-key.  They dominated the qualifiers and yet their run leading up to the World Cup was overshadowed by the respective runs by Brazil and Spain.   What he was able to do was extinguish the fires of displeasure and possible division after Robin Van Persie's outburst earlier in the week.

As far as this match was concerned, Joris Mathijsen was sorely missed in the beginning, at least.  André Ooijer started out slowly and paid dearly as Robinho got behind him and scored the opening goal of the match.  Ooijer kept Robinho There was a true communication issue going between the two.

Where there was no doubt was the presence of Mark Van Bommel and Gregory van der Wiel in the center of the pitch.   These two imposed their physical style upon the Brazilians and truly short-circuited the play in the middle for Brazil.

Who knows exactly what coach Van Marwijk said, but this is what has made him one of the big differences of the national team this time around.  He has been able to keep this team even-keeled and not going overboard with the eternal internal strife that this national team.

Wesley Sneijder was a constant threat and obviously put on goal the two opportunities that wold eventually doom Brazil's pretensions for the Hexa.

The Dutch took a while to settle down.  They gave the South Americans clear opportunities on goal, but Stekelenburg bailed his team out on multiple occasions. One chance was punched out by the Ajax goalkeeper.  Had that not happened, we would have witnessed the goal of the tournament.

What went wrong?

Brazil in the meantime were not able to stop the Dutch and were beaten on the second on one of their strengths- the set piece.  This time the corner kick to the first post was their death.  To make it even worse was that the two shorter players on the pitch beat them in the air.

We mentioned earlier about the effectiveness of van der Wiel and Van Bommel; but we also have to mention ineffectiveness of the Brazilian midfield.  In the first half what was noticed was that Brazil outworked them in the middle but the ones that were working were players like Maicon, Lucio, and Juan.

Eventually the midfield began taking over and that caused problems for Brazil.

At the end of the match, Dunga decided to step down as his contract ended at the end of this World Cup cycle.   Who will be the next Canarinha man?  Some might start pointing at Zico.  Some might even look at Felipao to jump into the ring of fire yet once again.